Transcript Document

Environmental Problems, Their
Causes, and Sustainability
Chapter 1
1-1 What Is an Environmentally
Sustainable Society?
 Concept 1-1A Our lives and economies
depend on energy from the sun (solar capital)
and on natural resources and natural services
(natural capital) provided by the earth.
 Concept 1-1B Living sustainability means living
off the earth’s natural income without depleting
or degrading the natural capital that supplies it.
Environmental Science Is a Study of
Connections in Nature
 Environmental Science
… the study of how the earth works, how we
interact with the earth and how to deal with
environmental problems.
 The goals of environmental science are to learn:
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how nature works
how the environment effects us
how we effect the environment
how to deal with environmental problems
how to live more sustainably
Sustainability Is the Central Theme
of This Book
 Sustainability, is the ability of earth’s various
natural systems and human cultural systems to
survive and adapt to changing environmental
conditions indefinitely.
Natural Capital =
Natural Resources + Natural Services
 Natural resources –
materials or energy in
nature that are useful
(sometimes essential)
to humans.
 Natural services –
functions of, or
processes in nature
which support life and
human economies
 Solar capital – energy
from the sun
Environmentally Sustainable Societies
Protect Natural Capital and Live off Its Income
 Environmentally sustainable societies… meet
basic needs of its people in a just and equitable
manner without degrading the natural capital
that supplies these resources.
Environmentally Sustainable Societies
Protect Natural Capital and Live off Its Income
 Key idea: Protect your capital and live off of the
income it provides
1-3 How Are Our Ecological Footprints
Affecting the Earth?
 Concept 1-3 As our ecological footprints grow,
we are depleting and degrading more of the
earth’s natural capital.
Some Sources Are Renewable…Some
Resources Are Not Renewable
 Resource – anything obtained from the environment
that fulfills a need or want
• Directly available for use (sun, air, water, wind)
• Not directly available for use (iron, coal, crops)
• Perpetual – on a human time scale are continuous
• solar energy
• Renewable – can be replenished rapidly
(e.g. hours to several decades)
• forests, grasslands, fresh air, fertile soil
• Nonrenewable – in a fixed supply or not replenished
on a human time scale
• fossil fuels, iron, copper, salt
Some Sources Are Renewable…Some
Resources Are Not Renewable
 Sustainable yield – the highest rate at which a
renewable resource can be used without reducing
its available supply
 Environmental degradation – when resource
supply shrinks as a result of overuse
 Recycling and reusing extends
supply of nonrenewable resources.
• Recycling processes waste material
into new material.
• Reuse is using a resource over
again in the same form.
Overexploiting Shared Renewable Resources:
Tragedy of the Commons
 Three types of property or resource rights:
• Private property – owned by a person
• Common property – owned by a group
• Open access renewable resources – own by no one,
available to all, no charge
 Tragedy of the commons – common property/
open access resources will be exploited
• Solutions – laws or policy reducing resource access or
use OR convert the resource to private ownership
Overexploiting Shared Renewable Resources:
Tragedy of the Commons
Our Ecological Footprints Are Growing
 Ecological footprint - the
amount of biologically
productive land and water
needed to supply the people
of a particular area with
resources and to absorb
and recycle the wastes and
pollution generate by such
resource use.
Consumption of Natural Resources
Texas
India
Japan
Mali
Connections between Environmental
Problems and Their Causes
IPAT
Equation
 I=PxAxT
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I = Environmental Impact
P = Population
A = Affluence (per capita consumption)
T = Technology
1-4 What Is Pollution and
What Can We Do about It?
 Concept 1-4 Preventing pollution is more effective
and less costly than cleaning up pollution.
Pollution Comes from a Number of Sources
 Found at high enough levels in the
environment to cause harm to
organisms.
• Point source – known source
• Nonpoint source – unknown or
multiple sources
 Pollutants can have multiple unwanted effects:
• Can disrupt / degrade life-support systems
• Can damage health and property
• Can create nuisances such as noise and unpleasant
smells, tastes, and sights
1-5 Why Do We Have
Environmental Problems?
 Concept 1-5A Major causes of environmental
problems are population growth, wasteful and
unsustainable resource use, poverty, exclusion of
environmental costs of resource use from the
market prices of goods and services, and attempts
to manage nature with insufficient knowledge.
 Concept 1-5B People with different environmental
worldviews often disagree about the seriousness
of environmental problems and what we should do
about them.
Experts Have Identified Five Basic Causes of
Environmental Problems
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Population growth
Wasteful and unsustainable resource use
Poverty
Failure to include the harmful environmental costs
of goods and services in their market prices
 Insufficient knowledge of how nature works
Resource Consumption and
Environmental Problems
 BOTH poverty and wealth can lead to
environmental degradation:
1. Overconsumption
• High levels of consumption
• Unnecessary waste of resources
• Affluenza: unsustainable addiction to
overconsumption and materialism.
2. Underconsumption
• People who live in poverty are concerned
with survival, not the environmental
implications of their actions.
Individuals Matter:
Aldo Leopold’s Environmental Ethics
 Through writings and teaching,
became a pioneer in the area of
conservation
 Land ethic; the way we treat the
Earth is a moral issue:
http://gargravarr.cc.utexas.edu
/chrisj/leopold-quotes.html
• Individuals matter
• … land is to be loved and
respected is an extension of
ethics.
• We abuse land because we
regard it as a commodity…